Random Happiness While I'm Looking for Buttons
(A new walk, a survivor, a new swing, waving lace, vintage bed coat, the best neighbors, a winter sky, baby feet, a happy silo)
Decisions Decisions
So, I think this is where I am going to stop knitting and end my 28Thirty which is about where the pattern calls for you to end. After wearing it around the house for a while it feels pretty comfy. But then there's the whole issue of buttons! I'm really excited about this project and find myself hoping the mercury keeps dipping for a while so I have the opportunity to wear it.
**Chick Update**
The girls are growing SO fast. I have been wanting to share more pictures of them but they are going through an "awkward" phase where their fluff is being replaced by feather and they look a bit scraggly. Still cute but scraggly. Think back to your High School Yearbook or maybe Junior High and they are kind of at that point in their chicken lives. I know they are just chickens but I just can't bring myself to expose them in their awkward phase :-)
They're Here!
I mentioned at the end of an earlier post that we were expecting some new little ones in our family sometime near the end of April. Well, our babies arrived earlier than expected this past Tuesday and we couldn't have been happier! All together there are 8 hens or pullets, five different breeds. I could go on and on about how incredible cute they are and how they each have very distinct personalities already. Chickens are awesome! But since this is an **ahem** knitting blog if you would like any chicken details don't hesitate to email me. I can fill in all the gaps, like what breeds etc.
Not to play favorites or anything, although each one of us has bonded to a particular chicken, but these four ladies like to be handled so I took them outside for their first photo shoot.
My baby, Hildegarde. She's a Barred Plymouth Rock and the only hen with a true name so far.
This is Jorn's baby "Chippy" because her markings resemble a chipmunk but they are rapidly disappearing as her feathers come in. She is an Araucana or an "Easter Egger" meaning she will lay pastel colored eggs.
This is our Jersey Giant. And just behind her is our really shy, Rhode Island Red who doesn't seem to like to have her picture taken. There is only one other breed not represented and she's a Golden Laced Wyandotte. So there! I actually did tell you about the breeds. Oh, I can't help myself these little ladies are so much fun.
Greg has been sprucing up their new digs, adding nesting boxes, repairing the foundation, making it predator proof. There is much more work to be done but it's really coming along.
So now between Simonne nursing a few times a night and me watching over the chicks (for no other reason than I like to, they are in fact very easy to take care of) I am one seriously tired momma.
**BTW, my dad painted that Fresh Eggs sign for us! Click on it to get a closer look, it's really impressive. So if he's reading this...Thanks Dad! It looks great on the coop :-)
Pink
OK. Just a few more thrifty things since my 28 Thirty is chuffing along. The pattern calls for knitting the body first after you finish your raglan increases but I knit the sleeves first instead. I might want to make mine longer so I figured if I have my sleeves set I can just knit away on whats left of my yarn after that. A longer version like this might be more useful but I also really love the look of this one. Care to add your 2 cents?
There was a lot of pink stuff in the thrift store and I simply could not resist this chair. I think the lace thing draped over the side is a table runner but it is so beautiful it really deserves it's own place somewhere. Oh I love this chair and it is really comfy too. Some old chairs can look ok but sag terribly. This one is in great shape and for $18 there was no way it was staying in the shop. Back to knitting and thrifting and building...
Thrifted
Thought I'd take advantage of the sunny weather to share just a bit of my recent thrifting finds. The amount of embroidery floss I picked up borders on obscene. Basically I will never have to buy embroidery floss for the rest of my life. I'm not kidding. All for a whopping $3.50. There's also plenty of that sport weight tweed to make something large. I bought the yarn for the color but also for the label. I love old yarn labels and usually laminate the good ones by sandwiching them in packing tape and trimming the edges. Then I use them as bookmarks.
Hope you are all having/had a lovely weekend. Spring is waking up everything for me. My senses, my ambition, my joy. I don't think I realized what a winter funk I was in. Fun, fun times. I adore the sense of promise and renewal. Even more delightful is watching my sweet Simonne try her first steps in the soggy wet grass. What a sensation that must be. We'll be welcoming some new little ones at our home sometime toward the end of April so stay tuned!
Family Planning
**This is a link heavy post so I am having the links open in a new window. Is this easier? Annoying? Don't care?
Almost a year ago we packed up all our stuff and moved from our old, really small house in a "city" to a big, beautiful farmhouse on a plot of land. (Bear in mind that the pictures of our new house were taken before we moved in so all the furniture and stuff belonged to the previous owners.) With such a big house come big dreams. Each family member has their own dreams. I have turned the "yellow room" into a yarn studio. Greg has already started renovations to turn this workshop into his writing studio. Jorn's world has opened up as each corner of our property gets discovered and delighted in. But we also have common dreams. Wallpaper we want to change. Bluestone courtyards we imagine dining on outside. Fields fenced in and horses grazing. Of course, the list goes on and on. When we moved though I was **really**pregnant and could barely lift a box let alone take on any of these dreams. So over the past 11 months many of them have laid dormant. Now that spring is here though there is one family project we are looking forward to.
Jorn's Idea.
We are still trying to figure out why he writes a "W" after his name. He's always done this.
My idea.
Those dots along the outside are Marigolds.
Greg's Idea.
You have to get closer look at this one (click) so you can read his "key".
Notice that the Nurpals are Purple.
Simonne is still working on her rough draft ;-) But really. These plans are all big and lofty and while we accept that our garden may not be this big or this complex this first year I believe that we'll realize our dream eventually. I am a firm believer in dreaming big. Keep in mind that not one of us has ever successfully kept a garden. In fact, I barely keep house plants alive. But our intention in taking on the property we have is to become more and more self sufficient as the years go by and teach our kids some survival skills different from the ones Greg and I learned growing up in the city (NYC).
So as soon as it stops snowing and the ground begins to thaw we'll be busy tilling and toiling giving this garden thing a go.
New Beginings
Thank you all for your sweet comments on my last post. What I didn't tell you though was that during the knitting of Cobblestone I developed a serious infatuation. A new love. No, it's not another man but a new (to me) yarn. Peace Fleece. I **love** this stuff! Holy Wow! As I was knitting Greg's sweater I was thinking, ach, this is going to be tough for him to wear. It was a little hard on my hands. But when I blocked it...oh, when I blocked it...it just...bloomed. I couldn't resist working with it again. Then I came across the 28Thirty on Ravelry and I was done. So, here's to hoping the cooler weather sticks a round just long enough so I can flaunt this when I am done.
FO: Cobblestone or The Seven Year Itch
I have been putting off posting these photos for a month now! In fact, today is the one month anniversary of our anniversary for which this Cobblestone was knit. The photos that I took were, in my opinion, overexposed and not exactly what I had envisioned for sharing my biggest knitting accomplishment so far this year. Each day would pass and I would think to myself, "Tomorrow we'll re-shoot." and tomorrow would come and go. Obviously my hubby would have to model and his work schedule provides a narrow window of opportunity for taking pictures. Excuses. Excuses. So, I started asking myself why I was really putting off posting these pictures. I realized that I felt a lot of pressure on different levels. Cobblestone is the first sweater I have knit for my husband. Cobblestone was knit for our 7th wedding anniversary. I wanted to write an amazing post that expressed fully the beauty and pain that comes along with being married for that amount of time (or any amount of time). I wanted to be sure that you all could see how absolutely handsome my husband is since he really doesn't like having his picture taken. I wanted the lighting to be perfect. I wanted the day to be more than sub zero. I wanted so many things to be just right, perfect even. Then I realized how unrealistic that really is.
Flash back to 8 years ago on February 25th 2000. I am working as a soda jerk in a local homemade ice cream store and getting ready to close up shop, scoop my last scoop of the night, and meet my brother and his friend who has just returned from San Fransisco for drinks. I ask my last customer what type of ice cream they would like as I am looking past them through the big shop window a man walks by. Time stops and I literally drop my ice cream scoop and declare to the customer on the other side of the counter, "See that man walking in? I am going to marry him." To be honest I can't even really remember if that person got their ice cream or not. But you know what? I got my man! Turns out that guy walking past the window WAS my brothers friend visiting from San Fransisco. In fact we had met years ago when I was 14 and he was 21 and one of the best men at my brothers wedding. I am sure the age difference at the time caused him to slip by my radar but I remember my sisters sitting around and saying how hot my brothers friend with the long hair (the guy with the long hair being Greg) was.
Flash forward one year from that day, February 25th 2001. Greg and I married and promised ourselves to one another. One year had passed since we met and we had already moved three times, bought two cars and one house together. Greg quit his big time job in NYC and moved up to the mountains with me. We lived on love and hope. Took many risks and failed a few times but ultimately always succeeded. This set the pace for the last 7 years where we have bought and sold three more houses, had two beautiful children, shipped Greg's dream car over from France, Greg wrote his first novel, I learned to knit, among many other adventures.
But it wasn't easy. I am a child of divorce. I resisted marriage. It took a long time for marriage to feel good on me, a long time for me to realize that I am still me only married. Without Greg's patience, devotion and maturity I don't even honestly know if I'd be sitting here and writing this post today. As I write this , 7 years and one month after the day we married, I can say finally with all my heart that I can't think of a better thing that has ever happened than the day I met Greg. Through our union all of our dreams are coming true. The old and the new. This brings me back to the Cobblestone.
In so many ways it represents our path over the last 7 years. Of course, it is not perfect. The garter ridges symbolize the rocky road that marriage often entails. It has it's smooth sections too though. And just when you think it's all smooth sailing there are those cuff bumps again. No really, sorry to get all cheesy but how can I resist these metaphors. Really all I want to say is that I knit this for my husband, on our 7th wedding anniversary which is traditionally wool and/or copper, with complete and total love. I gifted it a few days late but no matter. Good things are worth waiting for. Like love.
So there is my post. It may not be what I had envisioned, also like the unrealistic expectations we so naively go into marriage with. But it is what it is. And I am happy.
More project details and more pictures on Ravelry.
**Does any one else find it ridiculously funny that the traditional 7 year anniversary gift is wool and there's the that old saying, "The Seven Year Itch"! Maybe THAT'S what that has meant all along!
FO: Happy Spring!
Just a quick post to wish you all the happiest Spring and/or Easter or whatever you choose to celebrate!
OOXXX,
Spidey
I whipped these up in two short evenings so the kids would have bunnies in their baskets. (Project details can be found on Ravelry.)
FO: Hello Bonnet
Pattern: Top Down Bonnet with Anime Character (or in my case without the Anime Character) from Hello Yarn **Free**
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepard Sport in Parfait (Thanks Fric!)
Needles: Size 3 DP's
Mods: Ok. Well, let me just start by saying that the sizing for this pattern is completely off. First, I knit the hat as written for the Baby size and wound up with something barely big enough to fit on a orange. Then I checked Ravelry and found that many others have had sizing issues as well.I knit the adult size for Simonne and added 3 extra increase rows and knit for much longer than the pattern calls for before I finally cast off. I am happy with the final product but I have to say the decreases are a little wonky and while the adult size produced a bonnet that fits Simonne well, some tweeking could be done with the amount of stitches you actually cast on. I am in the process of knitting another with modifications I think might make it more a more tailored fit. And it seems as if you can easily get two of these caps out of one skein of Lorna's Laces Shepard Sport. All this has been "Raveled" too.
Still this is an adorable pattern and well worth the five minutes it feels like it takes to knit it. Plus the pattern calls for casting on with the Figure 8 cast on and if you've never done this before use Adrian's tutorial. I love this cast on! I'm glad to have this new technique up my sleeve since I can see it coming in handy when I try toe up socks.
Simonne seems happy with her hat and what is cuter than a baby in a bonnet? Maybe, just maybe, my husband doing his Blue Steel? You decide...
Cobblestone details coming soon!
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